ON THE HORIZON is a new Celebrity Cruises homeport
for its annual Bermuda cruises: Norfolk, Va. The 1,350-passenger
Horizon will offer seven-day cruises to Bermuda between April and
October next year. The Horizon and its twin, the Zenith, have
traditionally sailed to Bermuda from New York; Celebrity will later
this year offer its first non-New York-Bermuda departures -- from
Philadelphia -- on the Horizon.
CELEBRITY, meanwhile, filed a $300 million
lawsuit against Rolls Royce and Alstom Power Conversion, the
manufacturers of Mermaid propulsion pods, alleging the pods were
"defectively designed" and "deceptively and fraudulently marketed."
The cruise line said all four of its Millennium-class ships with
Mermaid systems have had at least one mechanical or electrical
problem with the propulsion pods; last month it canceled a sailing
of the Millennium due to pod problems. The suit, filed in state
court in Miami-Dade County, Fla., seeks to recover lost revenue and
costs associated with pod failures.
CUNARD'S Queen Mary 2 will be the next ship to
use Mermaid pods so Cunard Line and parent company Carnival Corp.
said they are studying Celebrity Cruises' claim. CEO Micky Arison
said the company has "an excellent working relationship" with ship
builder Chantiers de l'Atlantique and Rolls Royce. "We're working
cooperatively with them to provide the best expert verification
that the steps taken ... to remedy the technical issues which gave
rise to the Celebrity problem have been fully rectified in the pods
for the QM2," Arison said.
CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES guests should be on the
lookout for the line's new mascot, "Fun Ship" Freddy. The
fun-loving mascot won't be hard to miss: Fun Ship Freddy is tall
and red, and he sort of resembles Carnival's distinctive winged
funnel; plus, he has big eyes and a huge white smile passengers
will be able to spot from anywhere on the ship. So far, about 20
Freddy actors have been hired to don the Freddy costume. Clients
can even take Freddy home: Plush toys of the unique mascot already
are available on the Carnival Glory.
NEWS IN BRIEF:
• Peter Hillary, son of Mount Everest adventurer Sir Edmund
Hillary, will join cruise guests as a lecturer on Clipper Cruise
Line's Dec. 21 voyage in New Zealand.
• Norwegian Cruise Line slated a series of seminars along the West
Coast to promote NCL America and the line's 2004 Hawaii deployment.
The seminars will be held in cities in Arizona, California,
Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington between Aug. 25 and
Sept. 15.
• Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises enhanced the
company's Seminars at Sea program by reducing the rates and adding
"more consistent and interactive" seminar content. The lines said
agents also will be able to earn 7.5 CTC credits and bring a
non-agent guest on the cruise.